Paradigm
by The Lady Avaritia
Summary: Five things that happen to Itachi in a world where Sasuke never existed… and one that didn't. He's 13 when he kills his family, and he's 21 when he doesn't die. In between that, he's also among all things, a sensei, and a fighter for Konoha.


**Title:** Paradigm

**Rating: T**  
><strong>Spoilers: G<strong>eneral

**Characters**: Itachi, Sasuke

**Summary: Five things that happen to Itachi in a world where Sasuke never existed… and one that didn't.**

**Disclaimer: **disclaimed

**Author Note: Yeah…no. Don't ask.**

**Author: **_Lady Avaritia_

_The rain falls, to the ground  
>So much harder when you're not around<em>

_~Birdy, Be Free_

He's thirteen and the medi-nin wants to cuddle him to her chest and protect him from the world.

'It's so , so terrible, you poor boy!' the medic says sympathetically. Itachi draws the mental file out of his rusty mind.

Inuzuka Hana is the heiress of the Inuzuka clan, an ANBU, excellent tracker nin. She has a younger brother.

'The whole family, in one night,' she continues. Her eyes are big, and swarming with sadness. He can tell she is genuinely sorry, as she heals the self-inflicted wounds on his arms and chest.

'I'm sure they will find who did it, and yu will get revenge.'

He nods mutely, and closes his eyes.

Behind his lids, the Mangekyo Sharingan burns painfully.

Itachi is thirteen when he kills his entire clan.

-x-

Itachi's dark eyes scan the area.

'Duck!' he orders just before the batch of kunai fly his team's way.

His eyes bleed to a bitter crimson, as he surveys the perimeter through the thick fog.

'We meet again, Itachi of the Uchiha. The Last Crow. Too bad you will never carry the name…'

'Sakura, guard the client! Naruto, go reinforce Kiba, I will fight Zabuza off.'

Itachi is eighteen when his gennin team completes their first B-rank mission.

-x-

Itachi lands swiftly in front of the Forest of Death. Anko is munching on dango and swinging her legs childishly.

'Yo!' she greets and waves.

'Hn,' he nods.

They sit in companiable silence. The other sensei are getting drunk in the local jonin bar, Hopeless. He doesn't fit with them. They're too informal, too noramal, too…human for him to deal with, and no one particularly likes him either. Nobody is supposed to know that he wiped out the Uchiha, but the Konoha grapevine is an unrealiable thing when you need to keep a secret, and nobody likes clan-killers anyway.

'Do you think they'll manage?' she asks finally.

'Who can tell? They're a good team, so they most probably will; however there is an 8% chance that they will fail because of personality clashes within the group.'

'Wow… Even if you don't wear the standard gear, it's obvious you're an ANBU.'

Itachi is nineteen when he realizes how much he's lost from his life.

-x-

'Congratulate Sakura for making Chuunin!' he says warmly, and his dark eyes dance a little. Itachi can barely distinguish the blurry head of pink hair, and next to her the brown-ish shape of Inuzuka Kiba. He stifles a nasty cough.

His fight with Orochimaru severely weakened him. Nobody likes receiving chakra infused blows to the chest. And last night his eyes bled again…

Thank Kami Naruto and Jiraiya are off to fetch Tsunade.

When Naruto comes back he wil have to fulfil his promise and sacrifice an entire month's pay at the shrine of the Stuff of the Gods that is ramen.

He realizes that, despite the painfully low payment, and hardships of disastrous arguments between immature children (a badly –or well, depending on whether the target was Kiba or Itachi- aimed katon from Naruto almost fried the head off his body once) he actually likes his position as a sensei.

Itachi is nearly twenty when it hits him that having a gennin team is almost like having a family. But of course, even when he still had his, he didn't know how that felt like.

-x-

'It's the team!' he complains to Kurenai.

'All of a sudden they're completely different! Sakura's got,' he started flailing his arms in front of his chest, 'and she also has,' more helpless flailing around his hips, this time.

'And I swear, Naruto won't tear his eyes off her chest! It's impossible to genjutsu him, because ehis eyes are glued to a safe place! But I swear, he will get killed like that one day! And then there's Kiba who won't stop going off about how I know nothing about true family ties, read – his undying hate for Hana, and he won't stop staring at Naruto's ass either, and Sakura is doing all that – stuff…Like pick up lines, and – blargh! – seduction attempts, and I have no idea what to do about it! I was never like that when I was their age!'

'You were their sensei when you were their age,' Kurenai says gently, and runs her fingers through his hair soothingly.

'They're hormonal teenagers. They'll grow out of it. And besides, Sakura's newly developed…ah, assets are the only pair of breasts Naruto has seen up close. Kiba is just beginning to realize his sexuality, and Sakura is just beginning to take her steps on the road of womanhood.'

Sigh.

'And what about you, anyway? I mean, she's a perfectly fine girl…Ever since I've known you, I haven't seen you show interest in anyone at all! Sometimes I feel like you'll proclaim you're asexual and split in two, and repeat until you reproduce the Uchiha clan like some giant emotionless amoeba…'

Itachi groaned and buried his head in his hands. He's twenty one when he thinks for the first time in years that he so desperately needed to get back on ANBU duty.

-x-

He was already twenty one, and for a shinobi he was painfully old…

He felt old too, tired, aged, having seen – done – too much for this fragile age at which civilians were barely gaining independence.

He felt the age of his deeds in his bones, in his lungs, and behind his blood stained eyes, as the amaranthine color dimmed to an almost rusty brown, the use of the Mangekyo slowly taking its toll…

Of course, now that Madara was dead, he could freely take the older man's eyes, and restore his sight and his health… It was just his –and Konoha's – luck that Orochimaru and Madara had decided to get a go at each other, just to be sure who'd get the honor of destroying the village they had both betrayed.

At twenty one, Itachi didn't die.


End file.
